Bag of Bones

infobox Book |
name = Bag of Bones
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Stephen King
cover_artist = Frank Oudeman
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Horror novel
publisher = Scribner
release_date = September 22, 1998
media_type = Print (Hardback
pages = 752
isbn = ISBN 0-684-85350-7
preceded_by = Desperation
followed_by = The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

"Bag of Bones" is a 1998 novel by Stephen King. Novelist Amy Tan has said of the book that it is full of "the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination." "Bag of Bones" is important in that it is one of the first of King's books to have been given in-depth literary analysis beyond that of the horror genre by critics.

Its themes include the trials of the writing process (the main character Mike Noonan has writer's block), the power of memory (the ghosts of Noonan's past as well as the ghosts of Sara Laughs, the creepy lakeside house to which he moves) and the ghosts lurking close behind the everyday and the mundane. A crucial human element, however, is the struggle of a young widow and her daughter to stay away from the grip of Max Devore, the power-mad figurehead of the community.

Plot introduction

After the sudden death of his wife Jo, author Mike Noonan is plagued by writer's block, with his dreams haunted by the summer house he shared with her, he reluctantly decides to return to the isolated lakeside retreat.

There he finds his once beloved town in the grip of the powerful millionaire Max Devore, who twists this small community to his own purpose, attempting to take his young granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike becomes drawn into their struggle he falls in love with both of them and is further drawn into the mystery of this ghostly town.

Plot summary

The narrator, Mike Noonan, is an author living in Derry, Maine who suffers from severe writer's block after the death of his wife, Johanna (called Jo), from an undiagnosed brain aneurysm. Particularly disquieting to Mike is that his wife had just bought a home pregnancy test, but never revealed the pregnancy to him. Mike anguishes after his wife's death, and finds himself unable to write due to panic attacks. Fortunately, he has four unpublished manuscripts, and using them he keeps his agent and editor unaware of his problem.

Four years after Jo's death, Mike begins to experience nightmares set at his summer house in TR-90, an unregistered township in Maine. He decides to confront his fears and moves to the house, known to locals as "Sara Laughs". On his way to town, Mike encounters a small child, Kyra Devore, walking down the middle of the road. Mike worries that something might happen to the child if she continues walking like that, so he scoops her up and returns to his car with her. A moment later, Kyra's mother, Mattie Devore comes flying up the road in her old jeep. Mike's initial reaction is that Mattie is a "white trash" mom who will yell at the child and possibly beat it due to her own inattentions, but he is pleasantly surprised when Mattie clutches the child for dear life and begs her never to run off again. The two talk for a few minutes and Mattie drives off.

Later, while in town, Mike learns from the locals that Mattie's late husband, Lance, was the son of Max Devore, a rich and influential man from the town who didn't approve of his son's marriage to Mattie. Max, now well into his 80's and bound to a wheelchair, wants custody of his granddaughter, and is using his money and influence to paint Mattie as an irresponsible mother. Through his caretaker, Bill, Mike learns of Mattie's past, her marriage, and her custody woes.

When Max finds out that Mike ran into Mattie and Kyra, he threatens him via telephone. Despite the threats, or perhaps because of them, Mike hires John Storrow, a custody lawyer, for Mattie as an act of kindness, and he gradually develops feelings for Mattie despite the almost twenty year age difference between them. Through his various crooked connections, Max manages to drag Mike into the custody battle even further by forcing him to make a deposition for the impending custody hearing. Accompanied by a local lawyer, Romeo Bisonette, Mike makes the custody lawyer hired by Devore look foolish by beating him at his own game and calling his bluff.

Mike begins to write again, while both Kyra and Mike experience hauntings in their homes. The author realizes that the ghost of Jo is assisting him in solving the mystery of Sara Tidwell, a blues singer whose spirit is haunting Mike's house. Mike asks the locals about what happened to Sara Tidwell, and is warned to refrain from digging in old scandals. He also learns that Jo frequently returned to the town in the year before her death, without telling him.

Max Devore threatens Mike again, and in an encounter with Mike, Max and his personal assistant, Rogette, almost succeed in drowning him. It's only due to the help from his wife's spirit that he's able to survive the attack. Then, in an unexpected turn of events, Max Devore commits suicide, which seemingly leaves Mattie and Kyra free from his influence.

Mike, Mattie, John, and Romeo Bissonette, the lawyer that assisted Mike during his deposition and a detective are having a party when a gunman shows up and shoots everyone in sight, Mattie fatally. Mike, the only adult not hit, takes Kyra back to Sara Laughs as a huge storm breaks. He is acting under the influence of the ghost of Sara Tidwell and finds himself preparing to drown Kyra and commit suicide himself, going so far as to give Kyra cocoa and Benadryl to make her sleep, and drawing the bath. But there are still pieces to the mystery that Mike doesn't understand, and the ghost of Jo is trying to prevent him from doing what he is doing.

As Kyra sleeps, Mike goes to Jo's studio to search for answers. He discovers documents that Jo had hidden away before her death, and among the papers is a genealogy showing Mike's blood relationship to one of the town families. Several had firstborn children with "K" names who had been murdered or died under suspicious circumstances. The genealogy shows that Mike and Jo's child (who was going to be named Kia) would have been the next firstborn child with a "K" name in the family line, had she been born.

Mike realizes this must be Sara Tidwell's curse for something that had been done to her. He returns to the house, checks on the still-sleeping Kyra, and drains the bath meant for her drowning. He can feel Sara's influence to take Kyra to the lake, but he fights it off. He leaves the house once more with a shovel and a bottle of lye to search for Sara's grave, knowing that the only way to break the curse and keep Kyra safe will be to destroy Sara's bones. On his way to where Mike suspects Sara is buried, the ghosts of Max Devore's grandfather and several other town men appear to him and try to block him from getting to the grave. Mike learns through a vision that these men had viciously raped and killed Sara, and drowned her son Kito in the lake. Furthermore, all the "K" children who had died were descendants of those men. Mike makes it to the grave site, but Sara's ghost doesn't want the curse ended prematurely. She tries to stop Mike, and attempts to assume corporeal form to do so. Jo appears in corporeal form herself and tells Mike he must hurry as Sara has enlisted the help of "The Outsider" to harm Mike and prevent him from reaching Sara's bones. Jo struggles to fight off The Outsider while Mike digs up and destroys Sara's bones with the lye, ending the curse.

Returning to the house, Mike discovers that Max Devore's assistant Rogette has kidnapped Kyra. Mike follows Kyra and Rogette to a neighboring property, arriving just as Kyra bites Rogette and attempts to escape onto a dock heaving in the waves from the storm. Mike tries to hit Rogette and keep her away from Kyra when Mattie's ghost appears and knocks Rogette into the Lake. Rogette attempts to pull Mike into the lake with her, but she is impaled by wreckage from the dock. Mattie's ghost says her goodbyes to Mike and Kyra, and she tells Kyra that she is now Mike's daughter.

The novel ends with an epilogue in which readers are told that Mike has retired from writing, and is attempting to adopt Kyra. His status as a single, unrelated male complicates things, and the adoption has taken longer than Mike anticipated. Still, the state has allowed Mike to visit Kyra, and she has been allowed overnight stays with him. The outcome of the adoption is left unresolved at the end of the novel, but the reader is given hope that it will be a positive outcome.

Connection to King's other works

*Ralph Roberts, the main character from "Insomnia", appears briefly in the novel. Ironically, during his appearance he asks the protagonist and narrator of Bag of Bones, Mike Noonan, if he is suffering from insomnia. Joe Wyzer, also from "Insomnia", appears briefly in the novel.
*Ray Garraty, the main character from "The Long Walk", is mentioned in the novel. However there is no indication this is the same Ray Garraty. This Ray Garraty is a character in a novel Noonan is working on during his stay at Sara Laughs.
*Mike Noonan reads books by Bill Denborough, from "It".
*Sara Laughs is located on Dark Score Lake, from "Gerald's Game".
*Thad Beaumont, from "The Dark Half", is mentioned as having killed himself.
*Castle Rock, Maine sheriff Alan Pangborn is spoken of.
*Jared Devore, Max's ancestor, mentions Shawshank Prison.
*Sara Laughs is the twinner to Cara Laughs, a location in "Song of Susannah" and "The Dark Tower".
*"Lisey's Story", King's 2006 novel, mentions a Mike Noonan novel, but not the outcome of his adoption of Kyra.
*TR-90 is the location of Kashwak in King's novel "Cell".
*Mike Hanlon, from "It", appears briefly in the novel.
*The importance of 19, a number of talismanic power in The Dark Tower is introduced here.
*A woman Mike meets in the gym is said to be reading a book by Ellen Gilchrist. This is the maiden name of Ellen Rimbauer (Rose Red)

Intertextual references

*The character Tim Carpenter in the movie "Final Destination 2" can be seen reading "Bag of Bones" before he goes to sleep.
*In Stephen King's "Kingdom Hospital", in the episode "Goodbye Kiss" a maintenance man can be seen reading "Bag of Bones".
*The novel won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1998.

Audio version

The audio version of "Bag of Bones" is noteworthy in several respects. Like all Stephen King books, the audio version is unabridged. It is read by Stephen King himself, one of the few books he has read himself for audio version publication. Intermingled with the text are bits of music and a song sung by Sara Tidwell; this music and song were recorded specifically for the audio version of "Bag of Bones". Finally, the audio version of this book includes an interview with Stephen King.

Tenth Anniversary Edition

infobox Book |
name = Bag of Bones:
Tenth Anniversary Edition
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Stephen King
cover_artist = Frank Oudeman
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Horror novel
publisher = Scribner
release_date = 2008
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages =
isbn =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

A new trade paperback edition is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2008, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the novel's release in 1998. It will contain "bonus text" and a special Q&A.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

It was recently added to the imdb website that the film will be set for a 2009 release with Mick Garris as director. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212452/ ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.stephenking.com/ Stephen King's official website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/bagofbonesmovie The film's official MySpace profile]